Appreciation of Film

Richard Lowell MacDonald is a lecturer in the Media and Communications department at Goldsmiths, University of London. His specific research interests include the history of cinema and visual culture, institutions of film criticism and pedagogy, the aesthetics of documentary and ethnographic film, and historic and contemporary modes of moving image exhibition beyond the cinema theatre.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1 Enthusiasm and Civic Duty: The Emergence of the Film Society Movement2 The Postwar Transformation of the Film Society Movement3 Popularising Film Appreciation: Roger Manvell’s Film4 The British Film Institute, the Film Archive and Film Society Programming5 Making the World Our Home: Affirmative Internationalism and Film Societies6 Film Society Criticism, Middlebrow Taste and New Cinemas7 Film Societies, Universities and the Emergence of Film StudiesConclusion: What Was Film Appreciation?NotesBibliographyIndex

‘This is an interesting project, based on thorough research, dealing with a topic that deserves to be better known and better documented.’ (Professor Andrew Higson, Dept. of Theatre, Film and Television, University of York)   ‘This book serves as a valuable companion to an emerging literature on the history of film studies, both internationally and specifically within Britain.’ (Professor Richard Maltby, Dept. of Screen and Media, Flinders University)